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NASA scientist Famiglietti to speak in Waterloo on ground water crisis
April 28, 2016 By Ground Water Canada
Waterloo, Ont. – Jay Famiglietti, a leading international expert on the state of the world’s fresh water resources, will deliver a talk on Thursday, April 28, at 4 p.m. at the University of Waterloo’s Davis Centre.
The lecture, “Water and Sustainability: 21st Century realities and the global groundwater crisis,” is the 2016 Water Institute RBC Distinguished Lecture, sponsor The Water Institute said in a news release. Famiglietti, a NASA scientist and University of California professor, will discuss how the evolving water cycle of this century will result in the depletion of the world’s major ground water aquifers, and create a global regions of freshwater “haves” and “have-nots.” The lecture will address how water managers might cope with these “new normals,” and how food and energy production will be impacted. Famiglietti, whose work is often featured in the international news media, will also share personal experiences with science communication and water diplomacy.
Famiglietti is the Senior Water Scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. He is also a professor of Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine, where he was Founding Director of the UC Center of Hydrologic Modeling. Famiglietti’s research group uses satellites and develops advanced computer models to track how fresh water availability is changing in California, the western United States and around internationally. A fellow of the American Geophysical Union and of the Geological Society of America, he is a frequent speaker, an avid writer and he is committed to science communication.
The RBC Distinguished Lecture is part of The Water Institute’s annual Research Symposium, where the breadth and depth of the University of Waterloo’s water-related research and education will be showcased. The symposium will include a high-level panel discussion on designing research for action, talks from Waterloo water researchers whose work was recently in the news, and a several three-minute thesis presentations from graduate students of The Water Institute.
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